The field of the disclosure relates generally to categorizing a neighborhood of persons, and more specifically to method and systems for modeling payment card transactions for a group of cardholders residing within a predefined neighborhood such that the neighborhood can be categorized within a life stage.
A life stage segment is a group of consumers who are classified based on shared demographics and/or certain differentiating spending behaviors. Determining the life stages of neighborhoods can be important. For example, realtors may like to know the demographics of a neighborhood to be able to point potential buyers to a desired neighborhood. Knowing the demographics also helps landlords and realtors to better direct their advertising materials. For example, if a potentially buyer has small children, then that buyer probably wants to be shown houses in neighborhoods with other families having small children.
Generally, people in different life stages have different spending behaviors. However, a lack of detailed consumer information coupled with an inability to access private information makes it difficult to determine the life stage of a neighborhood without thoroughly investigating that neighborhood. At least one result is that realtors and landlords waste resources on poorly targeted promotional campaigns. Further, potential buyers and renters may get frustrated with being directed to places to live that don't fit their life stage.
Realtors and landlords would like to focus their efforts more effectively to make their buyers and renters happy. In addition, it is desired that the categorizing of neighborhoods, apartment complexes, and/or apartment buildings, be accomplished without continuous gathering, storing, and updating of consumer data. A system that is configured to categorize a neighborhood with different life stages would help direct potential buyers and renters to places to live that are more relevant to them.